Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry
by neosonic2
Summary: While looking for a new way to defeat Sonic, Dr. Eggman stumbles across something that has been kept hidden for over 50 years. My first fanfic. Rated to be safe, but contains NO language and some mild violence. Updated often. Read, enjoy, and REVIEW!
1. Introduction

_**A/N: **__Hi, this is neosonic2 here with my first-ever fanfic. I decided that my first fanfic would be a Sonic Adventure 2 fanfic, because that's my favorite Sonic game, and I believe it is the best Sonic game that Sega & Sonic Team have produced so far. _

_Italicized information either represents a term or concept. If this information is preceded by an __**A/N**__, that means that it's an author note, like what you're reading now. _

_Please don't forget to review this fanfic…but go a little easy on the reviews, because after this is only my first fic and so I'm real new at this. _

_Thanks for reading this fic! I don't know how long it will be but there will be quite a few chapters. Each chapter may or may not be preceded by an author's note._

_So without further ado, let's get to the fanfic!_

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry **

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 1: Introduction**

On a lonely, deserted island in the Pacific Ocean, one man plotted his next scheme. This man, however, wasn't like any normal man. He was heavyset, shaped like an egg, and had an enormous IQ of 300. In other words, he was a genius. He knew just about everything there was to know about science, technology, and how to invent things. But unfortunately he decided long ago to use his genius and resources for world domination.

So here he was now, this man, on his deserted island in the Pacific Ocean, trying to think and come up with a plan on how to defeat Sonic once and for all. Yes, Sonic, that pesky, spineless blue hedgehog we've all come to know and love. This man, this Dr. Eggman, if you will, hated Sonic the Hedgehog. He hated him mainly because of his speed. Sonic could go over 700 mph and even break the sound barrier if he tried. He used his speed to his advantage, often defeating Dr. Eggman in his quest to take over the world simply by sheer determination and speed. This was why Dr. Eggman was looking for a way to get rid of Sonic once and for all. He needed a master plan, something that he knew wouldn't fail. And little did he know that today would be the day that he would unleash his greatest and most dangerous weapon yet—a weapon so volatile that even Sonic might not be able to stop him this time.

And so, our story begins.

* * *

Dr. Eggman was sitting in the high-backed, throne-like green chair that was positioned conveniently in front of his main console. This console was where he controlled every aspect of his hidden base, located on a remote, deserted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. For some reason that Dr. Eggman couldn't quite put his finger on, Sonic the Hedgehog always seemed to figure out where Eggman built his new bases and would always eventually come and tear them down. Eggman hoped that Sonic would never be able to find this new, well-hidden base. After all, it was discretely hidden inside a giant pyramid that was surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of quicksand, something even Sonic couldn't travel through without help.

"Dr. Eggman, content search complete," said the synthesized voice of a worker robot that had just entered the room. "Excellent, E-117," said Eggman. "What have you found?" "We have searched through all of your files and have not found any schemes or plans that we think would stand up to Sonic based on the criteria you provided us with," the worker robot said. "However, we did find one floppy disk that contains data on it that we cannot decode. We think it may be useful to you, sir." "Hand it here!" said Eggman, a little too eagerly. For days he had been commanding his worker robots, including the new E series line of robots he had been working on for some time now, to search through all of his files, disks, cabinets, etc. looking for some "new material" – some kind of new scheme that Eggman had never before used on Sonic. So far the search had not gone over well, but this most recent piece of news left Eggman a little over-eager for excitement.

The worker robot handed Dr. Eggman the floppy disk, and he quickly proceeded to put the disk into his computer. After taking a second to read the disk, his main computer screen lit up with the following information: "Password required – A password is required to access the data stored on this floppy diskette. Please type the correct password and hit the ENTER key to begin accessing the data. Password hint: Gerald." "Password?" Eggman asked himself, "I don't remember encoding any of my disks with a password. I've never had the need to. I wonder how this disk got in here... And I wonder what the password is too."

Eggman thought for a few seconds about what the password might be. He considered the password hint given to him by the computer, and then suddenly snapped his fingers, a possible password popping into his head. He faced his keyboard and typed, "M-A-R-I-A" into the console and then hit the ENTER key. The computer screen went blank, to be replaced by a progress bar that slowly started to creep across the screen. After a few seconds of this, the screen went blank again, this time being replaced by a list of the files on the diskette. "Excellent!" Eggman exclaimed, "That was the right password!"

Eggman proceeded to look through the files on the floppy diskette. Most of them, he noticed, were of military records or machine construction information for his various weapons, ships, and vehicles. But there was one file with a name he didn't recognize, called "Project Shadow". He double-clicked on this file, and while the computer proceeded to open it he thought to himself about what the file might possibly contain. Finally, his word processing program started and the contents of the file appeared on-screen. He stared intently at the document, trying to read what it said. It appeared that the document had something to do with a research project codenamed "Project Shadow". This project, according to the document, had been shut down sometime in the 1950s by a military organization known as _G.U.N_, or Guardian Unit of Nations. Apparently the project had been cancelled because there had been an accident on the _ARK_, the space colony where research and development on the project had begun. The document went on to talk about the various powers that Project Shadow would have, among which were its vast array of weaponry and fighting know-how, and, something that really caught Eggman's eye, its immortality.

"This is perfect!" exclaimed Eggman. "This is exactly what I need to get rid of that pesky, high-speed hedgehog once and for all! All I need to do now is to figure out how to get into G.U.N's base so I can steal Project Shadow. The file said that the project had been placed there after the ARK had been shut down, but it didn't tell me how to get into the base. No problem, though. With all of my advanced machines this should be a synch. Sonic, look out, because I, the evil Dr. Eggman, the greatest scientific genius of the world, am back. And this time, there's no stopping me! Muhahahahahahahahaha!"

* * *

_**A/N: **Well, that's the first chapter. Kind of short isn't it? The first chapter is always the hardest to write, so they'll probably get longer as I go along -- remember, I'm new at this. _

_After writing this chapter and submitting it, I realized I had left out some very crucial info in my author's note. So this is why there's one down here. Anyway here's the info I left out. _

_(1) I will update this fanfic often, every few days or so as inspiration strikes. _

_(2) At the beginning of each chapter there will usually be an author's note that has comments about the reviews I've gotten (if any) since the last chapter, as well as a few other details and copyright info and stuff._

_(3) Please review. It's what helps me to grow as a writer and its what inspires me to continue writing and submitting chapters. Thanks in advance to everyone who reviews. _

_(4) The standard Sonic disclaimer applies. I don't own anything having to do wiith Sonic, but I wish I did, because then I could make the games better than they are now. _

_Guess that's it, thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope to have the next one up real soon! Oh and you can now follow my updates to this story on Twitter, just look up the username neosonic2. **And**, if you want other creative ways to review my chapters, and you've got Skype, look me up on Skype at neosonic2 and we can chat/talk for a while about what you think of my story._

_Until next chapter!  
_


	2. The Awakening

_**A/N: **__Welcome to chapter 2 of my Sonic Adventure 2 fanfic! When we last left Dr. Eggman, he had found, on one of his many floppy disks, some information about a research project that was cancelled more than 50 years ago. Read chapter 1 to find out more about this. _

_The standard Sonic disclaimer applies. I don't own anything related to Sonic the Hedgehog. But I wish I did, because then I'd be able to make more Sonic TV shows!_

_**Review Thanks:**_

_**(1) "Lynn:" **__You were my first reviewer. Thanks for the review. I have seen many fanfiction writers that do exactly what you were talking about in your review – start a fanfic and then never finish it for one reason or another. I don't intend to do that, though. I intend to finish this fanfic and make it the best that I can. I don't know how long it will take, because after all, and as you stated in your review, you can't rush inspiration. Thanks again for your review!_

_**(2) "Warak": **__Ah, my second review, and this one's from a personal friend as well. I loved the encouragement in the review because it spurred me on to write this chapter. I will do more explaining about the situation in this chapter than I did in the last chapter but I figured that most people who visit the Sonic fanfiction page already know about Sonic so I don't really need to do that much explaining. Thanks again for the review_

_OK, enough banter, on to the chapter 2!!_

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 2: The Awakening **

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder is located in the North Quadrant and is moving in the direction of the underground base. Locate and stop the intruder from entering the security area. This is not a drill! We repeat: this is not a drill!" "Muhahahahaha!" laughed Eggman as he made his way to the G.U.N naval base, destroying the robots in his path amidst the blare of alarm sirens. "G.U.N thinks they can stop me? Ha! This is all too easy, they don't stand a chance! Now, let's take a look at what my grandfather was working on…a top-secret military weapon. The military shut down the research because they feared it. What a bunch of pathetic humans!"

Dr. Eggman, now in his trademark red suit and driving a giant walking robot, blasted his way through security door after security door in the G.U.N military complex as he searched for the portion of the underground base that contained his grandfather's greatest creation, codenamed "Project Shadow". According to a document Eggman had read earlier that morning, research on Project Shadow, which had been conducted on the Space Colony ARK more than 50 years ago, had been shut down on the premise that there had been an accident. The document went on to say that an incomplete yet functional version of Project Shadow, the last version that Dr. Gerald Robotnik had created before his death, had been locked in a cryogenic freeze and stored somewhere in G.U.N's underground complex. Eggman was determined to find and awaken it, even if it meant having to destroy every single G.U.N guard robot and soldier that got in his way.

As Eggman moved farther into the base, more and more soldiers and guard robots began to appear. He wasn't feared by this, however, and continued to shoot at them with his Volkan cannon. There were several times during Eggman's trek through the base when it looked like Eggman's walking robot would be defeated, but Eggman quickly out-maneuvered and destroyed the oncoming robots in a way that prevented this from happening. When he finally reached the core of the underground complex, he was startled and somewhat dismayed to see that the only thing that appeared to be there was a computer console. "What's this?" Eggman asked as he walked up to the computer console. "Enter password," the computer screen read. Eggman typed "M-A-R-I-A" into the computer console, which then displayed the message, "Input chaos emerald."Eggman did so and waited for what would happen next. Suddenly the back wall of the room opened, and when the smoke cleared Eggman saw a dark figure that resembled a hedgehog. "Is that you, Sonic?" asked Eggman. "Have you come to ruin my plans again? Because if you have, you're not going to get away with it!" "Wait a minute," said Eggman, as the dark figure stepped into the light coming from the front of Eggman's vehicle, "you're not Sonic…Who are you?"

"I am Shadow, the world's one and only ultimate life form. Since you have been so kind as to release me, I will grant you one wish." Eggman looked at Shadow in awe. But his reverie was cut short when a giant G.U.N guard robot slammed its way into the room, sirens blaring full-force. "Now what's going on?!" Eggman asked, enraged that G.U.N would even think of taking him on when they knew that he was, after all, the greatest scientific genius in the world. "Wait," said Shadow, "let me take care of this robot. It will give me a chance to show you my true power." Then Shadow dashed toward the robot before Eggman could retaliate.

**BOSS 1: SCORPION TROOPS' HOT SHOT (Shadow)**

The G.U.N robot started off its attack routine by propelling itself into the air and circling around the room, firing bullets at Shadow as it went along. Shadow easily dodged these bullets, and used the many boxes that were scattered throughout the area to jump up and smash into the cockpit of the enemy, who immediately landed and started to fire missiles at Shadow. These were also easy to dodge, and when finished the robot prepared to launch itself into the air again, but not before Shadow got another hit in. Seemingly unfazed, the guard robot lifted off into the air, but this time did not proceed to fire bullets. Instead, it crossed to the opposite corner of the room from where Shadow was standing and prepared to fire a homing laser at him. While the laser was charging up, Shadow used the remaining boxes, most of which had been smashed by the missiles the guard robot had fired earlier in the attack, to get close enough to the robot and try for another attack at its cockpit, Unfortunately for Shadow, however, the guard robot fired the homing laser before Shadow could complete his attack, causing Shadow to have to change directions and fall back to the ground instead of attacking the cockpit.

This having been completed, the guard robot then proceeded with its normal attack routine of flying around the room pelting Shadow with bullets. Again, Shadow dodged these easily, and once again he attacked the cockpit after the robot landed and finished firing missiles (which came faster this time but were still easily evaded by Shadow). Angered, the robot lifted off into the air again, but not before radioing in to the G.U.N control room saying, "This is Scorpion Troops' Hot Shot. The enemy is stronger than expected, and we need additional support." "Ha!" Shadow exclaimed. "Can't even beat me without support, huh? Shows what a hunk of junk you are! I'll finish you off right now!" And with that, Shadow slammed one final hit into the cockpit of the robot, bringing it down, this time for good. "Humph. Pathetic humans," Shadow muttered under his breath as he watched the robot burst into flames. "How dare you mess with Shadow, the one and only ultimate life form?"

"Destroying that guard robot was spectacular!" exclaimed Eggman, coming up behind Shadow, who turned to face him with an evil glint in his fiery red eyes. "So, Shadow, you are the military's top-secret weapon. But what did you mean when you said you would grant me a wish?" "Bring more Chaos Emeralds," said Shadow as he started to walk past Eggman to the room's exit. "Shadow, wait!" exclaimed Eggman, furious that Shadow would even have the nerve to walk away from the great Dr. Eggman. "I'll be waiting for you," said Shadow, uttering each word slowly as if Eggman didn't get the meaning of his last sentence, "in the Central Control Room of the Space Colony ARK." And with that, Shadow exited the room, leaving a stunned Eggman to wonder what Shadow meant when he said to bring more Chaos Emeralds. But as Eggman started to head for the exit, he knew that despite this small setback, Shadow would be the perfect weapon to use to get rid of Sonic permanently.

_**A/N: **__OK, so that's chapter 2. Probably not as great as chapter 1, but writing about Eggman's trek through the G.U.N. military base, as well as Shadow's fight with Hot Shot, wasn't very easy. The next chapter, which will be about Rouge's encounter with Knuckles and Sonic's first stage, should be much better. Thanks to everyone who has read this story so far, and thanks to my reviewers. Look for chapter 3 sometime in the very near future. And don't forget to review this chapter (and chapter 1 if you haven't already done so)!_


	3. Unfriendly Encounters

_**A/N: **__Here's chapter 3, as promised. And also as promised, I will go a little deeper into the explanation of the game. Not too much though, because I figure that most of the people who come to the Sonic page of already know about Sonic. Anyway, this chapter should be a little more exciting than the last one. Chapter 2 was difficult to write because of Eggman's Iron Gate stage. I have trouble writing Eggman's stages because most of them only involve walking through corridors blasting enemies and the like._

_**Review Thanks: **__(If I missed somebody I deeply apologize. You can send me a PM or e-mail if you think you've been missed and I will reply to you directly.)_

_**(1) "Warak": **__Thanks for your review. I don't know how long a "standard" chapter is, but yes, you're right, chapter 2 was longer than chapter 1. I don't know how long each chapter will be in advance, so I can't gauge the length of a chapter before I submit it._

_**(2) "OvErLoRd Darkspine": **__Thanks so much for your encouraging review! It really moved me, and it also motivated me to keep writing chapter 3. Hopefully I won't fall into the pitfall you described of writers never finishing their stories. I have played through Sonic Adventure 2 so many times, and have searched the Internet for fanfics on it (not finding any, of course) that I thought it was high-time we were all graced with a SA2 fanfic. Thanks again for your review!_

_One last thing, I forgot to mention this in either chapter 1 or 2. This story was not only inspired by Sonic Adventure 2 itself but by the songs "My Immortal" by Evanescence and "Invincible" by Pat Benatar. Keep that in mind while you're reading, OK?_

_OK, now on to chapter 3! By the way, if you think these chapter titles are weird, let me know in your review. I'm not good at coming up with chapter titles, especially when multiple things happen to multiple characters in a chapter, like what's going to happen in this chapter. _

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 3: Unfriendly Encounters**

"It's 11:08 AM, and here I am in a desert area, squabbling with a treasure-hunting bat that thinks that all of the world's jewels are hers," Knuckles thought to himself as he continued to quarrel with Rouge over the Master Emerald. "Let it go!" Rouge screamed. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?" "What are you talking about?" retaliated Knuckles, "that Emerald's mine!" "Aha!" exclaimed Knuckles as he managed to grab the Master Emerald away from Rouge. "Got that?" Knuckles asked after setting it down on the coarse, hard ground in front of him. "The Master Emerald contains special powers that enable it to neutralize the energy from the seven Chaos Emeralds. That makes it very powerful, but it also makes it dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands." Knuckles pronounced these last two words while pointing an accusing finger at Rouge, who glared back at him in retaliation.

She was about to retaliate even further when suddenly a claw appeared from above and snatched the Master Emerald from in front of Knuckles. (_**A/N: **__Queue Eggman's theme music from SA2 – "E.G.G.M.A.N.")___"Argh! I shouldn't have let go of the Emerald when I got it from Rouge!" thought Knuckles to himself as he looked up to see the face of Dr. Eggman, floating about 10 feet above the ground in his Egg Mobile, an egg-shaped vehicle with an open top and the capability to hover and grab objects with a claw attached to the bottom of the vehicle. "I came here following the signal from the Chaos Emeralds," said Eggman. "If I'm not mistaken, this is the Master Emerald, is it not?" "Aren't you--?" "Yes, I am Dr. Eggman, the greatest scientific genius in the world!" exclaimed Eggman with glee. "So that's Dr. Eggman," chimed in Rouge. "I guess I can use the Master Emerald for something," decided Eggman. "So I'll just take this with me, if you two don't mind. Farewell, Knucklehead!" said Eggman as he started to head towards his secret base. "Oh no you don't!" exclaimed Knuckles in frustration. He quickly ran after Eggman, and, jumping onto the claw of the ship, used the Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack, an ability that he had gained while trying to defeat Chaos in the Mystic Ruins area a few months ago, to smash the Master Emerald to pieces. "What?" spluttered Eggman. "Aaaaaahhhhh!" screamed Rouge, grabbing Knuckles and shaking him violently. "What was that all about? And look what you did to _my_ Emerald!"

Knuckles violently tried to pull away from Rouge's iron grip. "What do you mean, _your _Emerald? That emerald's mine." "Yea, but you didn't have to go and _break it_, did you?" asked Rouge. "I did that to prevent the Master Emerald from being stolen, you idiot. If it's in pieces, I can restore it." Well, I think I'll leave you two to your argument," said Eggman. "Losing the Master Emerald wasn't that big of a deal. I'll look into the location of the Chaos Emeralds when I get back to the base." After Eggman left in the Egg Mobile, Rouge turned on Knuckles again. "I guess we'll just have to see who finds t he Emerald pieces first!" she exclaimed. "And I know that it'll be _me_, so I wouldn't even try if I were you." "We'll see about that, _bat girl_!" exclaimed Knuckles, who stalked off, very frustrated at what had just happened. As he left the scene, Rouge yelled, "I despise anyone who takes jewels from me. All the world's gems are _mine_ to keep!"

***

Meanwhile, in the capital city, a G.U.N. helicopter made its way back to the G.U.N. military complex. "Calling Control Tower!" the pilot said into his radio. "We have you on radar," reported the Control Tower. "Report status of captive hedgehog aboard, over." "It's 1:27 PM here. We're on route and everything is as it should be. The cargo is secured onboard and—what?!" "Uh, GC-1, I didn't catch that last part, over," came the voice of the Control Tower as everyone in the GC-1 helicopter began to get into a panic. This was because of a certain spiny blue hedgehog had just broken out of the area in the helicopter that he had been securely locked in. Suddenly one of the sections of the front of the helicopter blew off and out popped Sonic, who quickly jumped up onto the wing of the craft. "Freeze!" screamed the voice of a G.U.N. security officer. "What do you think you're doing just standing there, men? _Get that hedgehog!_" The rest of the G.U.N. security officers quickly rushed for Sonic, who jumped out of the way and landed on the other wing of the craft. "Talk about a low-budget flight," Sonic said in disgust. "No food _or_ movies? Not cool man, I'm outta here! I like running better anyways." And with that, Sonic used ripped one of the wings off of the helicopter with surprising ease and, using it as a makeshift skateboard, jumped off of the craft and spun down into the city below.

As sonic fell closer and closer into the city, he started to hear the pounding beat of drums and bass guitars. Looking down, he saw that there was a band set up not far from where he was about to land. This band consisted of a bassist, a drummer, two electric guitars, and several singers. A banner hung over the band that said, "Sonic the Hedgehog: Welcome to Station Square". One of the band members looked up, and upon seeing Sonic plummeting toward the ground, nodded at the bassist, who quickly launched into a rousing tune that sounded quite familiar to sonic. "Where have I heard this before?" asked Sonic to himself as he got closer and closer to the ground. "Aha!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "I know what that song is, it's called City Escape, done by the Sonic Players." "Thanks guys!" he yelled down to the band as he finally touched the ground, using his skateboard to start skating down the road ahead of him.

Sonic became more and more excited as he skateboarded faster and faster down the city streets, dodging oncoming cars and showing off his stuff on the various ramps that dotted the city. Much to his dismay, he finally had to stop skateboarding due to a road block that was coming up fast. With a move that only Sonic could accomplish, he jumped over the road block into the heart of the city below.

When Sonic reached solid ground a second later, he found himself in front of a set of blue steps, with a poster advertising a film about Chao on a wall to the right of the steps. Sonic had no sooner reached the top of the staircase when a G.U.N. robot slammed down in front of him, barring his way. This robot was several feet tall, but no taller than Sonic, and he was holding the standard G.U.N. military weapon, a revolver, in his right hand. "Prepare to die, Sonic!" exclaimed the synthesized voice of the G.U.N. robot. "Not today, buddy!" said Sonic as he jumped and did a perfect Homing Attack into the robot, destroying it instantly. Continuing on down the path, Sonic came to another set of blue steps, which lead to a door blocked off by what appeared to be wooden containers. Sonic was about to break through the containers with his powerful spin dash move when he was met by yet another G.U.N. robot, exactly the same as the first one Sonic had encountered earlier. He destroyed it with a simple homing attack, and then decided to use his summersault move to break through the containers instead of the spin dash. What Sonic saw next though made him more excited than he had been so far. Placed not more than three feet in front of him was a red rail, one that looked like it could be used for grinding. So that's exactly what Sonic did. Jumping on the rail, Sonic ground down the rail until he reached the end, then jumped off and onto another rail that was conveniently placed in front of the first. Continuing to run, he noticed a ramp and ran up that, then took an immediate left and performed a long jump over a gap, grabbing a balloon-shaped, transparent capsule as he crossed the gap. These capsules, as he would soon learn, contained little cards that had the imprint of a ring on them. Getting rings would allow Sonic to purchase items from the Chao Black Market, a novelty shop found only in the Chao Gardens located on the western side of Station Square.

"Yeaaaaaaahhhh!" Sonic exclaimed as he ran through Station Square Park a few minutes later, dodging and destroying G.U.N. robots. As he rounded the next curve, he almost stopped dead in his tracks—for there in front of him stood a gigantic loop-de-loop that ended in a long drop down the side of the building. "This is what you've been waiting for…high speed action!" thought Sonic to himself as he began to run again. He took the loop head on and sped up and over it to the other side, beginning the exciting yet entirely too short journey down the side of the building. The building that Sonic was running down apparently was an office building, and a very large one at that. Sonic had already run down 20 floors in only a few seconds, and he was only halfway down to the bottom. "This is happenin'!" Sonic screamed as he began to go into a spin dash to finish his trek down the wall. He landed on a set of springs, which catapulted him up in the air, sending him falling headfirst in front of a weird-looking object. "So much for an exciting ending," thought Sonic as he gingerly picked himself up off of the ground. "What's this?" he said out loud as he stared at the object in front of him. It appeared to be a dark-blue shrine of some sort that had strange musical symbols written on every visible surface." This looks like some sort of shrine…I wonder if I need some kind of musical instrument to see what this thing does, I mean look at the number of musical note symbols on that thing. Well, I don't have time to check it out now, though. I've got to keep running from G.U.N before they find me again!"

{Putting that thought aside, Sonic ran past the shrine and up the set of blue steps in front of the shrine. Before he could go any further, though, he was met by a G.U.N. robot that blocked his path. "Priority 1 hedgehog alert!" exclaimed the robot. "Capture and bring to G.U.N. officials!" "Oh, no you don't!" yelled Sonic, as he performed a swift homing attack that completely destroyed the robot. "Whoa! Watch your step there, Sonic!" Sonic thought to himself as he stopped dead in his tracks before a gaping hole in the ground with no apparent way across. "How am I goin' to get across this?" Sonic asked himself. "This thing is too huge to jump across, and I can't fly…" Looking over his shoulder for a possible clue as to how to get across the gap, he noticed a red rope that was suspended in mid-air. "Hmm," Sonic thought, "maybe I can use that rope to get across the gap." Wasting no time, Sonic jumped onto the rope and began to swing back and forth. Using his cat-like reflexes and speed, he swung up and over the rope and used his momentum to propel himself across the gap.

Sonic breezed through the rest of the capital city without any more problems, until he came to barrier with arrows pointing downward. "Looks like I'll have to summersault through this," Sonic said to himself. No sooner than he had said this and somersaulted under the gap, a gigantic truck that had the G.U.N. security image on its sides appeared right behind Sonic. "Yikes!" screamed Sonic. He quickly tore down the streets, trying to evade the truck, which was going full-speed trying to catch up to Sonic. "That thing's fast!" realized Sonic as the truck kept gaining speed. "Apparently this guy means business!" Sonic poured on the speed, finally beginning to outrun the truck. Coming up to a barrier that was a little larger than the one he had somersaulted, Sonic had an idea. He thought that if he could run or summersault through the barrier, he would be able to evade the truck entirely by causing it to crash into the barrier. No sooner had Sonic ran through the barrier than the truck crashed into the barrier with a sound loud enough to disturb the crocodiles underneath the sewer (_**A/N: **__No idea where that came from!_). Sonic didn't even stop to look back at the demolished truck,

By the time Sonic reached the outskirts of the capital city, night had fallen. "This game of tag is boring!" exclaimed Sonic as he stopped to rest for a few minutes in a small park outside of the city. "I'm tired of running from G.U.N. I mean, I didn't even do anything! I'm outta here!" But before Sonic could make a move, a giant G.U.N. robot, much like the one that Shadow had fought after being awakened by Eggman, slammed into the ground a few feet in front of Sonic. "Hmm," said Sonic, "finally decided to show up, eh? OK, bring it on!"

Sonic's fight with this G.U.N. robot, named Big Foot, was similar to Shadow's, except that the robot didn't fire a homing laser at Sonic, instead preferring to stay in the air and fire bullets while moving around the arena several times. Because Sonic was in a park located outside of the city, he used benches that he found around the battle area to jump up and attack Big Foot while it was flying around. Eventually, with one last war cry, Big Foot was defeated, and it crashed to the ground amidst a wall of flames and smoke. "That wasn't so hard," Sonic said as he did a sort of victory dance to celebrate his defeat of the robot. "G.U.N. should really think about putting more fight into their robots if they want to ever beat me. I mean come on, that robot was way too easy to destroy. The least they could do is make their robots less vulnerable to my homing attacks. But they probably aren't smart enough to even do that!"

Sonic was about to continue his rant about the quality of G.U.N. attack robots when he saw a flicker of something move through the wall of smoke. (_**A/N: **__Queue theme music – "Throw It All Away"_) The figure became clearer as the smoke subsided, and when it was totally gone Sonic saw a dark figure with jet-black fur that resembled a hedgehog. Suddenly, as though the figure sensed that someone was behind him, he spun around and jumped out of the rubble of the defeated robot. Landing on the ground a few feet of Sonic, he produced from his pocket what appeared to be a shiny green diamond and began to toss it up in the air and catch it as if it were a baseball. "I'll start with this," the figure said, in a low, maniacal voice, "a weapon that holds the ultimate power!" "Hey," said Sonic, recognizing what the figure was holding in his hand, "that's a Chaos Emerald!" "Exactly," said the figure, an evil glint appearing in his eye. "Wait a minute!" exclaimed Sonic in realization. "Now I know who you are! The military mistook the likes of you for the likes of me! That's why they're chasing after me!" "It's about time you figured that out, hedgehog," the dark figure sneered. Those last few words were it for Sonic though. Raising his voice in anger and frustration, he said, "Say something, you _fake_ hedgehog, before I take that Emerald from you and mash it into your head!" "CHAOS CONTROL!!" screamed the figure, holding up the green Chaos Emerald as if commanding it to something for him. Suddenly, in a flash of brilliant green light, the figure disappeared, then reappeared on the top of a nearby 10-story building. "Whoa!" exclaimed Sonic. "How did he do that? Wait a minute…he's not using his speed to do that. He must be using the Chaos Emerald to warp from one place to another." "That's right, pesky hedgehog," yelled the figure, which now was just a blurry dot on the top of the nearby building. "I used the Chaos Emerald to do a trick called Chaos Control and warp up to the top of this building. After all," he said with a little chuckle, "I am the ultimate life form—Shadow the Hedgehog. I'm going to use the Chaos Emerald, and all of my powers as the ultimate life form, to fulfill the promise I made to Maria over 50 years ago. And nothing you can do is going to stop me! Farewell!" And in another brilliant flash of green light, Shadow was gone.

_**A/N: **__Phew, that was a long chapter. What did you think of it? Did you like it? Dislike it? Hate it? Love it? It was really long because I wanted to get Knuckles' encounter with Rouge and Sonic's first stage and battle, as well as his first encounter with Shadow, all in one chapter. _

_Did you know that there's this thing called a review? Yeah, it's where you can give your feedback about a story or chapter. Cool, huh? And, what's even cooler is that there's a button on the bottom of this page that says Review This Story/Chapter (or something like that). Just press that big button and you can tell me what you think of this cool yet very long chapter._

_I am also looking for some input on the next chapter. I am unsure as to whether I should make the next chapter about Knuckles' and Rouge's first stages (Wild Canyon and Dry Lagoon, respectively) or skip those and go on to Tails' first stage, Prison Lane, and his battle with Eggman. What do you all think? Tell me about it in your review or send me an e-mail – admin [at] lmerrill [dot] net. (Don't forget to replace the stuff in brackets with their symbol equivalents.) _

_Well, that's all I have to say, so see you next chapter (which should be coming soon by the way and won't be as long as this)!_


	4. Excursions

_**A/N: **__I know what you're thinking…your thinking, "FINALLY!" OK…so maybe that's not what you're thinking, but that's certainly what I'm thinking. But enough with all of my thoughts about thinking and on to things that matter more, like this chapter, for example. Here's chapter 4 of my (not-wildly-popular-but-gaining-in-popularity) Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic. I hope you like it, and don't forget to review! Reviewing helps me to get the next chapter out quicker! _

_**Review Thanks:**__ (As always, if I forget someone please shoot me a message and I'll reply to you personally)_

"_**Chintara": **__Thanks for your review. I try to make my chapters as flawless as possible, but I, like everyone else in the world, am not perfect, so I'm not saying that every chapter won't be without its errors. But if you find any errors please don't hesitate to report them to me in a review. As far as including Knuckles and Rouge's first level, you'll have to read on to see whether I've done that or not._

"_**OvErLoRd Darkspine": **__I'm glad you like long chapters…not that each chapter I write will be long, but I'll try to make them a considerable length. As far as including Tails' first stage, you'll have to read on to see whether I've done that or not. _

"_**Warak":**__ Thanks for your review. Not much to say about this one, except that you're absolutely right – it's hard to find the time to write fanfiction. That's why it's taken me so long to come out with this chapter – cause I just haven't found the time to write it (until now, that is). _

_By the way, I should probably mention this again: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Corporation, the Sonic the Hedgehog logo, or any of the Sonic characters. All information related to Sonic, his friends, and Sonic Adventure 2 are copyrighted by Sega of America, Sonic Team, Sega Technical Institute, Sega Europe and Sega of Japan. All other information is copyrighted by me, neosonic2. _

_And now, on to chapter 4. Enjoy!_

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 4: Excursions**

While Sonic was busy evading G.U.N.'s military attack force, Knuckles the Echidna was busy hunting down the Master Emerald shards. After he had shattered the Master Emerald a couple of hours ago while trying to free it from Dr. Eggman's grasp, the pieces had scattered to various locations around the world, and Knuckles was determined to find all of them and restore the Master Emerald before Rouge got her hands on them. After all, Knuckles was the one who had the power to restore the shattered Master Emerald, so even if Rouge did manage to collect all of the shards before he did they would be of no use to her.

Knuckles was located in an ancient, steep canyon not far from where he had fought with Rouge over possession of the Master Emerald. Because it was early afternoon and because the canyon was in the desert, it was extremely hot, a fact which Knuckles did not take kindly to. He had spent the last half hour looking for three of the Master Emerald shards that his radar had reported were located somewhere in this canyon, known to the ancients as _Wild Canyon_. The canyon consisted of two levels, a lower level that formed the front of a cave and an upper level that was only reachable by a giant wind fan located in the center of the lower level. Knuckles had already found one of the Master Emerald shards in the lower level of the canyon, and was now riding the wind fan up to the top level to continue his search.

"Man, it's hot out here!" said Knuckles to himself as he wiped sweat off of his face. He exited the wind fan and began to glide to his right, where he saw an area protruding out of the canyon wall that held several buildings that looked to be made out of wood. "Perhaps those are shacks," Knuckles thought to himself as he landed on the sandy ground a few feet in front of the first shack, which was positioned close to the canyon wall. "But who would build a shack way out here in the middle of the desert? Wait…it's probably those archeologists. Maybe they found one of the Master Emerald shards…that'd be great if they did because I'm really getting tired of this."

When Knuckles had first come to Wild Canyon he had been met by some archeologists that were digging there to see if they could unearth some ancient ruins. Knuckles noticed and was surprised to find that these archeologists looked almost exactly the same as the ones who had been exploring the Mystic Ruins a few months earlier. Knuckles had seen these archeologists a lot at the Mystic Ruins because apparently they had lost their way when the Angel Island, Knuckles' home, crashed into the ocean, forming an extension to the Ruins that created a sort of jungle area. At first Knuckles didn't think to ask the archeologists at Wild Canyon if they had unearthed a Master Emerald shard, but now he was finding that the idea was worth a shot.

He walked briskly up to the first shack and peered inside. To his dismay, there weren't any archeologists inside, but there was something there that Knuckles didn't immediately recognize. Walking closer to the object, he noticed that it was a transparent capsule. "I wonder what this is." Knuckles said aloud to no one in particular. "My inner radar isn't detecting this as a piece of the Master Emerald, and it doesn't look like a Chaos Emerald…but then why does it have a picture of my face the size of a card in it?"

"It's an _Item Capsule_," said a voice. Knuckles whirled around, fists clenched, and saw a tall figure standing in the doorway of the wooden shack. He saw, to his relief, that it was only one of the archeologists. "What's an Item Capsule?" asked Knuckles. "It allows you to procure certain items from it, of course," replied the archeologist, a little annoyed. "Items include power rings, a regular electronic shield, a magnetic shield that attracts power ring capsules, and an energy restoration item. The Item Capsules are powered by Chaos Energy, or energy from the Chaos Emeralds, so you have to be able to handle the Chaos Emeralds to use them."

"I can do that," said Knuckles, walking back over to the Item Capsule. "So I take it that this capsule that has a picture of my face in it is the energy restoration item?" "Correct," answered the archeologist. Knuckles then touched the transparent capsule to see what would happen next. With a loud _pop_, the capsule expanded then disappeared, taking the card along with it. Knuckles, frightened by the explosion of the capsule, jumped backwards in shock. He felt a sensation of warmth envelop his entire body, and then suddenly he felt 100 percent restored. His spirits were higher, the sweat was gone from his face, and he felt altogether ready to find the rest of the Master Emerald shards.

"Hey thanks for the info about the Item Capsules," Knuckles said to the archeologist." That's so cool. But did you by chance find a piece of an emerald while you were looking for the ancient ruins or whatever it was you guys are trying to find?" "Yes, actually, we did. Two pieces, in fact. Follow me and I'll show you where we dug them up." Knuckles gratefully followed the archeologist out of the shack and turned right with him to continue down the little shelf in the canyon wall. They passed a few other shacks and came to a portion of the canyon wall that looked different than the others. It was also where a few of the archeologist's team members were gathered, feverishly digging. The archeologist who had originally addressed Knuckles pulled from his pocket a small, shiny green shard. "The Master Emerald shard!" exclaimed Knuckles, taking the shard from the archeologist's hand. "We found it on the ground underneath that odd-looking patch of wall," the archeologist explained, pointing to the brightly-colored portion of canyon wall directly in front of them. "We found an ancient scroll that says that there are hidden treasures and stuff on the other side of those colored walls," another archeologist called out from where he was working. "The scroll said that in order to get beyond the walls you have to dig with a special tool, but we don't seem to have that tool so we haven't gotten through them yet." "I bet more of the Master Emerald pieces are behind that wall," commented Knuckles dryly. "But I don't have any special tools to dig with either so I guess I'm stuck until I can find something."

Suddenly Knuckle's inner radar went off, urging him to head west to a mountainous region not far from Wild Canyon. For as long as Knuckles could remember, he had possessed this "inner radar" to help him track the Master Emerald pieces if they ever got stolen. It was sort of like a "sixth sense" or an instinct, and right now the instinct was pretty strong. So Knuckles thanked the archeologists, stored his three newly-acquired Master Emerald shards in his pocket for safe keeping, and headed out of Wild Canyon toward the mountainous region in the west, excited about the prospect of finding more of the Master Emerald shards.

***

Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, Rouge the Bat was frantically searching through an oasis, trying to find several pieces of the Master Emerald shards before Knuckles did. While the oasis Rouge was searching through was cooler than Wild Canyon, it was a lot larger, which made Rouge's job much more difficult than Knuckles'. Plus there weren't any archeologists around to help her find the shards. But Rouge was an expert hunter, able to find anything. Jewels, especially Chaos Emeralds, were her pride and joy. She loved collecting them, not only because she found them quite fascinating but also because she was working with a secret government organization and got paid large sums of money or jewelry to find the Emeralds.

Rouge was an expert treasure hunter, like Knuckles, so finding the Master Emerald shards in the oasis wasn't too difficult for her. She didn't run into any problems either, except that she did notice a giant turtle being harassed by two G.U.N. robots. She walked over to the turtle and destroyed the G.U.N. robots with one of her kicks, and then watched as the grateful turtle jumped into the oasis. Seeing that this turtle was unlike any she had ever seen before, Rouge peered more closely at the turtle. As she did so, something bumped into her from behind, knocking onto the turtle's shell. Before she had time to react, the turtle sank underwater and swam rapidly to another, smaller oasis. In the few minutes it took Rouge to find the Master Emerald shards she realized that she could use the turtle to transport from one oasis to another, something she needed to do in order to find all three shards.

But eventually she found them and was about to head out of the oasis when the communicator on her writs beeped to life, alerting her that she had an incoming message. She flicked it on, noting that the message was from her private contact. The message stated that Dr. Eggman was up to no good again, something that Rouge had already surmised by the fact that the message was sent with high priority. What she didn't know or expect, however, was that the message said that Eggman was hunting down the Chaos Emeralds as well and therefore needed to be stopped at all costs. Rouge was delighted at this, because stealing jewels from others was her treasure hunting specialty. "This mission should be easy," thought Rouge to herself as she headed out of the canyon towards Eggman's secret pyramid base.

_**A/N: **__I know, I know, I know…this chapter is crappy, isn't it? Go ahead; you can say it outright in your review. The thing is, I'm not that great AT ALL with writing Knuckle's or Rouge's stages, because you don't really do anything except hunt for Master Emerald shards. And because I'm visually impaired I can't describe the landscapes real well either. But if this chapter wasn't exciting, the next one will be because (SPOILER ALERT) it entails Tail's battle with Eggman as well as his first stage and Amy Rose's rescue of her darling Sonic. That should be fun…….._

_Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to review! And don't even tell yourself that you don't know what a review is…because you do! Ha ha, anyway until next chapter! _


	5. Rescue Mission

_**A/N:**__ Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter of my Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic. This should be more exciting than the last (at least I hope it is). Let me know if it is or not in your review._

_Speaking of reviews……._

_**Review Thanks:**_

_**(1) "OvErLoRd Darkspine": **__Thanks for the review, and thanks for not calling the chapter crappy. I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

_OK, enough banter from me. On to chapter 5!_

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 5: Rescue Mission**

It was a beautiful day in the Pacific Ocean area, and only 11:56 AM in the morning. There were almost no clouds in the sky, and what little clouds there were contained no hint of rain. The sun was shining full-force, glinting and sparkling off the ocean waves, and carefree gulls were happily gracing the skies with their presence. Overall, the ocean was peaceful, quiet, and calm. But Miles Tails Prower had no time to enjoy the tranquility of the ocean as he flew to a nearby island in his plane, the Tornado. He was on a mission to rescue Sonic from a military base on Prison Island, a super-strong island that was home to several G.U.N. facilities and prisons.

"I can't believe Sonic would destroy a military building, or rob a bank, or steal a Chaos Emerald for that matter," Tails thought aloud as he flew in closer toward the island. "He's just not like that. I mean if he wanted a Chaos Emerald all he'd have to do is go find one or ask Knuckles for one." Tails pondered this a little while longer then said into his communicator, "Wait for me, OK Sonic? I'm on my way!"

As Tails neared Prison Island, he looked down onto one of the island's many landing strips and saw Dr. Eggman walking toward Amy Rose. "Hey look!" Tails exclaimed. "It looks like Eggman's cornering Amy! I wonder what he wants, or what he's doing on the island for that matter. IT doesn't matter, though. I have to help Amy, 'cause she's in danger! _Tornado transformation!_" Tails exclaimed as he pressed a button on his dashboard. The Tornado transformed into a walker robot, and Tails landed on the airstrip not far from Eggman and Amy.

"Aah! Let go of me!" screamed Amy as Eggman grabbed her from behind. "Never!" retorted Eggman. "You are Sonic's girlfriend, are you not?" "Yeah, so what if I am! What's that mean to you, Egghead?" "It means," snarled Eggman, shaking with rage at just having been called an egghead, "that I can use you to lure Sonic to his doom! That is, if he doesn't die in prison! Muahahahahahahahaha!!" "You'll never get away with this, Eggman!" retorted Amy as she furiously struggled to escape Eggman's iron grip. "Oh, but I will. I want the hedgehog….and now I shall have him!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it," exclaimed Tails as he walked up to Eggman in the transformed Tornado. "Leave Amy alone!" "Who's going to make me, you little two-tailed rodent?" asked Eggman sarcastically. "Perhaps this will convince you to let her go," said Tails. He pressed a button on the Tornado's console and out of the front of the walker popped several canons. "You think a few measly canons will stop the Eggman Empire? You've got another think coming!" Eggman roared as he charged towards Tails. The battle had just begun.

Tails found he had a difficult time defeating Eggman because the weapons that Eggman used were identical to the ones that Tails was using. Every time Tails fired a homing missile, Eggman would try to dodge it and then immediately follow it up with one of his own. Likewise, every time Eggman fired a shot from his Vulcan cannon, Tails would simply dodge it and fire a shot back. However, as the battle wore on, Tails found that he could deplete the Egg Walker's health by firing multiple homing missiles or Vulcan cannon shots in succession. Eggman was apparently new to his Egg Walker because it took him several seconds to maneuver it out of the way of an oncoming missile. Thus if Tails kept Eggman busy trying to dodge missiles then he would surely be able to land a hit in while Eggman was moving the Egg Walker around the airstrip. To Tails' astonishment, his plan actually worked, and soon Eggman had been defeated and Amy had been set free.

By the time the battle was over, the Egg Walker was smoking in several places and its energy levels were low. Eggman was fuming with rage, trying to think of what to do or say next. Finally, with a heavy sigh and an evil glint in his eye, he told Tails, "This time I'll let you go. But the next time we meet, you won't be so lucky!" And with that, Eggman transformed the Egg Walker into his regular Egg Mobile airship and flew off into the afternoon sun, his ship still emitting smoke from where it had been damaged in the fight.

Amy walked up to Tails and gazed up at him with gratitude in her beautiful green eyes. (_**A/N: **__Queue Amy's theme music – "My Sweet Passion"._) She was pink hedgehog, as tall as Sonic, with a bright and sparkling personality. She wore a pink dress and boots that went well with her pink hair and fair skin. "Wow, Tails, you did it!" Amy said. "But what are you doing here on Prison Island?" "I should be asking you that question," Tails said as he looked down at Amy from inside the Tornado. "Well, if you gotta know, I'm trying to rescue my hero, Sonic," said Amy condescendingly. "Again with the hero stuff", Tails thought to himself. It seemed that, besides wanting to cling to Sonic, Amy's purpose was to try to impress him as much as she could, which often involved her getting captured by Dr. Eggman and having to be rescued by Sonic. It was not often however that Sonic was the one who needed rescuing, and Tails thought that this was rather ironic. Aloud he said, "Amy, don't you know it's dangerous here?" "I know," said Amy, feeling annoyed, "but I wanted to rescue Sonic anyway." "Well," Tails said, ignoring this last comment, "I'll go find the cell that Sonic's locked in and then we can figure out how to get him out." With that he started forward, using the walker's massive legs to propel him and the machine to the G.U.N. prison complex. "Hey, wait for me!" Amy shouted as she hurried to catch up to Tails. "I want to come too!" But Tails had already entered the prison complex and Amy was left to find her way in. "I'll show them," she said as she searched for another way into the base. "I'll find some secret entrance and get in without being detected. Then I'll rescue Sonic first, before that brat Tails does."

***

Sonic sat on the cold, hard floor of his prison cell, brooding over his capture and tapping his foot impatiently. Sonic wasn't one to wait around for things to happen; he wanted them to happen right away, and a lack of action certainly wasn't doing him any good. "I hate this," Sonic said. "I'm supposed to be saving the world from Egghead and I'm stuck here, in jail, for something I didn't even do." Sonic was tempted to try his famous spin dash to break the bars on the cell, but his hands were chained and he thought that doing so might break his arms. So he just sat there, thinking about Shadow and waiting for something interesting to happen. Who was Shadow, anyway, and why did he lead G.U.N. to mistake Sonic for him? All Sonic knew about Shadow was his name and that he could handle a Chaos Emerald. He thought that there was more to Shadow than these two things and he wanted to find out what they were. He also wanted to get back at Shadow for robbing a bank and blaming it on Sonic. Perhaps Shadow was working for Eggman and Eggman put him up to framing Sonic. It would be just like Eggman to do something like that, Sonic thought. But then, if Shadow was the ultimate life form like he claimed to be, why was he working for Eggman, if he actually was? Wouldn't he have the power to do and destroy anything he wanted? But surely Eggman would want someone like the world's ultimate life form to do his bidding for him, right?

All of these thoughts and questions mingled with each other in Sonic's mind until they were a jumbled mass of unanswered questions. Sonic didn't have time to ponder these questions for long, though, because, with a loud creaking sound, someone fell through the prison cell door, which happened to be over Sonic's cell instead of inside it. The person, shrouded in shadow, landed softly on the ground right outside the bars to the cell. Sonic saw that the figure looked like a hedgehog, and realized with a start that none other than Shadow was standing before him. "You!" exclaimed Sonic. "Well well, we meet again," said Shadow icily. "What do you want Shadow? Did you come to gloat about how I'm in jail for something you did? Or maybe you wanted to insult me even further? Either way you being here is so not past cool." "All I wanted to do," Shadow said in his low voice, "was to let you know that you better not interfere with my plans." Sonic fidgeted uneasily in his cell, but his confidence never wavered. "Oh, so now you're mimicking Eggman, huh? I—" "Quiet!" bellowed Shadow, his temper flaring. "I made a promise to Maria before she died, and I fully intend to carry out that promise. Even if it means destroying your little planet. Which is exactly what I'm going to do! Once I collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, Dr. Eggman and I are going to fire a deadly weapon that can wipe out an entire planet in less than 30 seconds." "You wouldn't destroy Earth," said Sonic in horror. "I would," said Shadow. "I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. And if I were you I wouldn't interfere because if you do I will destroy you. After all I am the ultimate life form. Nobody stops me, nobody gets past me, and nobody interferes with the promise I made. Farewell!" And with that Shadow teleported away in a flash of green light, leaving Sonic to wonder about what Shadow had just told him.

***

A little later on, Sonic was catching up on some much-needed rest when another visitor dropped into the cell. This visitor was a pink hedgehog, and Sonic recognized her immediately as Amy Rose. "How'd you get here?" asked Sonic. "Hi to you too," said Amy. "And keep your voice down, or you'll attract the guards. And just so you know, I caught a ride with Tails and followed him into the base." "Well…I…I don't need your help," Sonic spluttered. Sonic had always been a bit…afraid of Amy. He knew she loved him, but didn't quite return the feelings back to her. He wasn't ready for that responsibility yet, and in the meantime kept avoiding her every time he saw her. "Are you sure you don't need my help?" Amy asked. Then she said tauntingly, "It looks like you could use it…" "The reason I'm in here," Sonic spat back, "is because of that _fake_ hedgehog. He came in here a few hours ago and really ticked me off."

"You mean that black hedgehog" Amy asked, her brow furrowing in thought. "Did you see it?" asked Sonic excitedly, turning to face her. "Where is it now?" "If I tell you," said Amy cunningly, "will you marry me?" Sonic jumped about a foot in the air, then landed and looked at Amy, fury in his eyes. "No way!" he exclaimed. But Amy could tell that deep down he was seriously considering the question. "Aww," she said aloud, walking over to a nearby computer console, "I thought I had you this time." With a heavy sigh, she swiped a card through the console's reader and then pressed a few keys on the keyboard. With a sharp hiss, the cell door retracted into the ceiling, and Sonic walked out of his cell and stretched his muscles. "That black hedgehog came here with Dr. Eggman," said Am, speaking as though nothing had just happened between them. "So Eggman's behind this too, huh? Kinda figured he was. Hey thanks for savin' me Amy," said Sonic as he jumped out of the prison cell. Amy didn't notice this, however, because she was focused intently on some mathematical equations that were scrawled across the cell wall. "Hey, what's all this writing on the wall? Did you write that?" Noticing, finally, that Sonic was gone, she jumped out of the prison cell after him, inwardly scolding herself for not keeping up with him. "He's such a brat sometimes!" she thought, but aloud she called, "Wait for me, Sonic!" Unfortunately though he was already gone, racing out of the prison facility and down what G.U.N. called "Metal Harbor", ready to take on his next adventure: getting off Prison Island.

_**A/N: **__Well, that's all, folks. What did you think of this chapter? Did you like it? Hate it? Love it? Despise it? Loath it? Why not express your thoughts in a review? Just hit the "Review This Story/Chapter" button at the bottom of this page to start the exciting experience known as writing a review. _

_Until next chapter, this is neosonic2, signing off. Keep it real, broskis!_


	6. Radical Revenge

_**A/N: **__Wow…just, wow. I can't for the life of me believe that it has been almost a year, a full year, since I've updated this fanfic, not to mention signed in to or visited . I apologize for not updating, but have been engulfed in life's adventures, problems, and challenges since my last update and just could never find the time to write a new chapter. But now I'm back, energized and ready to continue this fanfic, and I promise my updates will be much more frequent from now on. _

_Here's something to keep in mind while you're reading this. In case you don't already know, I'm visually impaired but have just enough vision to play video games like Sonic Adventure 2. However, what I don't have is the amount of vision needed to be able to correctly and accurately describe landscapes, boss battles, etc. in this fanfic. So if any of these things seem a little neglected, that's why. It's not like I'm trying to ignore describing things in the game to my readers, but rather that I don't have the vision required to be able to do so. _

_So with that, enjoy this long-awaited chapter (understatement of the century, right?) and don't forget to review!_

_By the way, it's a good idea to give credit where credit is due, so let me say now that I do not own nor take any credit for Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the Sonic games, characters, or other merchandise. Sonic, the other characters in the series, and all other things related to our favorite hedgehog are copyrighted by SEGA of America, Sonic Team, the Sega Technical Institute, SEGA Europe, SEGA of Japan, and any other companies I may be forgetting._

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 6: Radical Revenge**

In a desert on an island in the Pacific Ocean, a full moon shone brightly on a lone pyramid constructed not by Egyptians but by someone who considered himself to be the world's greatest scientific genius. Cunning, intelligent, and persistent, his mission in life was to take over the world, and this pyramid, which he called Ground Zero, was the starting point for that mission. From the outside, after traversing miles of quicksand and other hazards, the pyramid looked like any other normal pyramid constructed by Egyptians. But inside it resembled a military base, complete with high-tech weaponry, robot production facilities, and a command center from which all of the base's operations could be monitored. In fact, it was in this command center where the evil genius now sat, pondering the day's events and preparing for his next move.

Dr. Eggman swiveled in his chair to face his computer screen, his face the picture of bewilderment. "Why would Shadow want me to bring the seven Chaos Emeralds to the space colony ARK?" he thought to himself as he opened up his Web browser. He was about to do some research on the ARK when something on his TV monitor caught his eye. Swiveling to face it, he turned up the volume on the monitor and was surprised at what he heard.

"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an important news flash," announced a news anchorwoman with a strong British accent. "Earlier this afternoon, a break-in was reported at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Mysteriously, the only thing stolen was the bank's Chaos Emerald. According to eye witnesses on the scene, the suspect is none other than the world-renowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog. The suspect was seen fleeing the scene, destroying the guard robots in his path. We'll bring you more details as this story unfolds." "Sounds more like the work of Shadow!" exclaimed Eggman. He was pleased to see that the ultimate life form he had released from the G.U.N. military base had already gathered a Chaos Emerald and was thinking that now there were only six emeralds left to find before Shadow could put whatever plan he had into motion. "I've got to get to the colony to meet Shadow," thought Eggman, turning off his TV monitor and getting out of his chair. He made his way out of the command center toward one of the two space shuttles he kept in the pyramid, planning to head for the ARK immediately and see just what Shadow was up to.

"Pathetic humans," muttered Shadow as he watched police cruisers and G.U.N. military vehicles searching for Sonic on the streets below. He was perched conveniently out of sight atop one of the support pillars for the Radical Highway Bridge, one of San Francisco's largest bridges and greatest tourist attractions. Although it was the middle of the night, he still did not want to get spotted by G.U.N. and mistaken for Sonic, and so tried to keep out of sight as much as he could. As he watched the pandemonium unfolding below him, he chuckled to himself, and suddenly began playing a flashback in his mind of his time on the space colony ARK with his friend Maria.

_"Don't let them get away!" shouted a G.U.N. officer into his megaphone. "It's no use," panted Maria as she and Shadow ran together down another corridor in the space colony ARK. "They've got us, we're trapped." "Not yet," said Shadow, determination etched into every word he spoke. He tightened his grip on Maria's delicate wrist and pushed on, hurtling them both around a corner and down one more corridor leading to the ARK's Central Control Room. He was sure they had lost the soldiers following them but he wanted to get to the Control Room so he and Maria could grab the two remaining escape capsules and get away from the colony. _

_When they were twenty feet from the open door to the Central Control Room, they heard pounding footsteps behind them. At ten feet from the door, Shadow risked a glance over his shoulder to see two G.U.N. soldiers right behind them and closing in fast. With a burst of speed, he pulled himself and Maria the last few feet to the Central Control Room door and they swiftly ducked inside. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to close it, as at that instant the two soldiers arrived at the doorway, looking menacingly at Shadow and Maria. They both raced for the two escape pods, with Shadow arriving first. "Stop right there or we'll shoot," ordered one of the soldiers, drawing a gun from his shoulder holster. Shadow was already secure in one of the pods by the time the command was issued, but Maria hadn't been as lucky. She had reached her pod but hadn't managed to get inside, and was now forced to make a decision. _

"_Don't move or you're both dead," commanded the soldier, taking a step into the room. Maria quickly looked from Shadow to the soldier, and, her decision made, scrambled for her pod. The soldier leveled his gun at Maria and pulled the trigger. The sound was like a firecracker in the small room, and Maria turned to face the soldier and attempted to jump out of the way. But before she could, the bullet found its mark, and lodged itself into her chest, proceeding to throw her violently across the room, where she landed on the console that controlled the pods."Shadow," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper because of the intense pain, "I beg you, please, please do this for me…for all the people on that planet…" Before she could explain further, her voice faltered, and with her dying breath she said, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog" and fell onto the pod release button. Immediately Shadow's escape pod was ejected from the colony, hurtling towards Earth at a frightening velocity. Then, with a massive explosion, the capsule burst into flames and disintegrated, taking Shadow with it and leaving behind only a few wisps of dark black smoke._

"Maria," Shadow said now, coming out of his reverie, "I still remember what I promised you." As Shadow jumped off his perch atop the bridge, his face contorted so that it appeared to be carved out of granite, and he shouted at the top of his voice, "To all of the people on this planet, I promise you…revenge!"

_**A/N: **__Well, that about does it for this chapter. You may be asking yourself why the chapter is named, "Radical Revenge," though. This is because I originally intended to describe Shadow's trek through Radical Highway but then decided against it because I don't know enough about the landscape to be able to accurately describe it. I've played the level in the game countless times and can picture it all in my head, but seeing as how I am visually impaired, describing it on paper is a bit difficult. _

_So, with that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I again apologize for taking so, so, so long to update the fanfic. Be on the lookout for the next chapter to come soon, and feel free to include any suggestions for the next chapter in your review – I'm always open to help and ideas from my readers! _


	7. An Evil Alliance

**A/N: **Welcome to chapter 7 of my not-so-popular and not-so-frequently-updated Sonic Adventure 2 fanfic. Before I get to the actual chapter, though, I'd like to apologize for not updating this story in such a long time. I know that in my post of chapter 6, I promised that I would update more frequently than I have been, but as this story continues to illustrate, promises can sometimes go awry. Due to finishing high school and then starting college a couple of months ago, life for me here in New York has been extremely busy, and I have found that I've had less and less time to devote to this story. However, rest assured that I am going to update it, and that I am going to finish it, I just don't know how frequent those updates will be. Some will be more frequent than others, and some will be spaced way out there, so I apologize in advance for future infrequent story updates.

Oh yeah, and I can't forget to mention that as always I don't own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Eggman, Rouge, or any of the other Sonic characters, games, or merchandise. Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters and merchandise are the property of and are copyrighted by SEGA of America, Sonic Team, and any associated companies.

And now, our feature presentation, chapter 7 of my Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

**Sonic Adventure 2: A Promise Gone Awry**

_A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic written by neosonic2_

**Chapter 7: An Evil Alliance**

"Anyone home?" Rouge asked as she slowly stepped inside Eggman's command center. After following the signals from her radar, she had ended up at Eggman's secret pyramid base, believing that pieces of the Master Emerald were hidden somewhere inside. Upon finding them, she became curious to see what Eggman was up to, which led her to his command center. "Anyone here?" she called again as she stepped further into the room. She wasn't sure if Eggman was around or not, and hadn't encountered him anywhere else in the base. "Guess not," she said as she finished stepping into the room and let the air lock door hiss shut behind her. Taking a quick look around, she said, "Perfect, nobody's here. Now I can find out what that bad Doctor's up to."

Moving to Eggman's main computer, she peered at the screen for a second, noticing that settings for his personal space shuttle were displayed. "Ah," Rouge said, looking closely at the screen. "So he's taking a little trip, is he? Where exactly is he going? Hmm…the space colony ARK? I've heard that name somewhere before. If he's up there, perhaps I can get him to help me find the rest of the Master Emerald pieces. But I think I'll take the teleporter rather than the space shuttle." Walking over to it, she entered the coordinates of the space colony and, with a last glance around the room, allowed herself to be consumed by the ray of light that would teleport her to the colony.

Meanwhile, on the ARK, Dr. Eggman was slowly destroying his way to the Central Control Room, where he was supposed to meet Shadow. "So this is the space colony ARK, eh? I didn't expect it to be so dark. Ah well, I guess that's what you get for going into a place that's been locked up for fifty years. It was a pitty for those G.U.N. people to leave such minimal security around this place. Destroying these guard robots is a breeze! And I think I'm almost to the Central Control Room. Shadow better be there, or else." Opening one more air lock door, Eggman found himself in a large room, with several large windows looking out into space and planet Earth. In the center of the room was a giant, emerald-blue cannon, with computer terminals positioned on each side of the room that offered functions for controlling and monitoring various parts of the colony. Stepping further into the room, he saw Shadow standing next to the cannon, looking smug as he tossed an emerald into the air and caught it with ease. "I've been waiting for you, Doctor," said Shadow as he turned to face Eggman, the smug expression still on his face. "Well, I'm here," said Eggman tersely. "What is it you wanted to show me? This better be good too, Shadow, because if it isn't—" "Oh it is, Doctor," said Shadow, cutting Eggman off mid-sentence.

"Allow me to introduce to you the glorious achievement of what the world's leading scientist Professor Jerald has created." Turning to look out one of the windows, he continued, "The ARK was the first colony created by mankind, and it was where Professor Jerald conducted all of his research on the ultimate life form. But not too many people know that it was also where weapons of mass destruction were being built." "This," Shadow said, indicating the cannon, "is one of them. Its codename is Eclipse Cannon, and it is capable of destroying an entire planet." At this, Eggman's eyes opened wide, and with astonishment he mused to himself, "An entire planet. Hmm…" "But," Shadow continued, "the cannon has been inactive for quite some time now. To reactivate it, large amounts of energy are necessary." As if to illustrate this point, Shadow walked over to the cannon and placed the Chaos Emerald he had been holding into one of the six slots positioned around the cannon's base. Immediately, the cannon came to life and its computer screen lit up and began to flash the message "Eclipse Cannon not ready. Insufficient power provided."

With a start, Eggman mused aloud, "So that's why we needed the Chaos Emeralds!" "Exactly," Shadow said, turning back to face Eggman. "To reactivate the machine, you need all seven Chaos Emeralds. Once you have them, you're free to utilize the destructive power of the machine to do as you please. And then," he concluded with a grand gesture, "the world will be yours."

Jumping out of the Egg Walker, Eggman began to laugh menacingly, delighted at what Shadow had just said and at the prospect of finally being able to rule the world. "Muahahahaha," he laughed. "Sounds like a plan, Shadow. I like the way you think. I will gather the rest of the emeralds, power up the cannon, use it to dominate the world, and then build a legacy of my own…the Eggman Empire!" But as he was finishing his sentence, a voice from above chited, "Do you really think it's going to be that easy?" Looking skyward, Shadow and Eggman saw a flurry of movement from a corner of the room, and then a pretty purple bat-like creature emerged from the shadows. Gliding down from her consealed hiding place, she landed softly on the ground and proclaimed, "I have a great idea! Let's make a deal!" "A deal?" asked Eggman, turning to face Rouge menacingly. "Yeah," said Rouge, smiling sweetly. "I'm looking to find the pieces of the Master Emerald, and after hearing your conversation about that cannon over there, thought that you two might be able to help me. So if you would kindly hand me your radar…" Stepping a little closer to Eggman, her smile widened, and she unfolded her arms from her chest to show off her seducing purple outfit while batting her eyelashes at the evil doctor. But Eggman only frowned and asked, "If I do, what's in it for me?" With her smile never waivering, Rouge calmly replied, "I have a pretty good idea of where the other Chaos Emeralds might be. Although it may not look like it, I'm a skilled treasure hunter dealing in all kinds of jewelry. If you let me use your radar to search for the Master Emerald pieces, I'll help you find the other Chaos Emeralds. So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

Looking first at Shadow, who nodded in approval, and then at Rouge, who continued to smile sweetly at him, Eggman considered what Rouge had just said. He desperately wanted to find the other six Chaos Emeralds, but wasn't a treasure hunter and so was a little unsure of where to begin looking. Rouge, on the other hand, had just said she was a skilled treasure hunter, but Eggman still thought she seemed a little suspicious. However, he felt that it couldn't hurt to have her on board, as in the end it would most likely speed up his world domination efforts. Glancing again at Shadow, who winked at him, he looked at Rouge and said, "Yes, we have a deal." "Excellent," Rouge said, jumping up and beginning to glide around the room. "And by the way, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Rouge the Bat, but you can call me Rouge." And with that, she disappeared into the shadows again, leaving Eggman and Shadow standing by the Eclipse Cannon, wondering if their move to allow Rouge to join them had really been a smart one after all.

**A/N: **Well, that about wraps it up for this chapter. Please don't blame me if the ending was a little poor, or if it was modeled somewhat after other chapters in this story. I'm not the greatest at coming up with endings for my chapters, just like I'm not very good at coming up with concluding paragraphs for the essay I write, but hopefully I'll get better at that as this story progresses. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, ,and that you're looking forward to the next chapter, which should come out very soon. In the meantime though, don't forget to review, as that's what keeps this story going, and motivates me to make it even better than it already is!


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